1 / 31

The Case for the Deity of Christ

The Case for the Deity of Christ. Part II: Paul’s Epistles and Early Hymns. Outline. First Century Hymns Introduced Examples of First Century Hymns Paul’s Portrayal of Jesus as YHWH Conclusion. Hymns/Psalms.

freja
Télécharger la présentation

The Case for the Deity of Christ

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Case for the Deity of Christ Part II: Paul’s Epistles and Early Hymns

  2. Outline • First Century Hymns Introduced • Examples of First Century Hymns • Paul’s Portrayal of Jesus as YHWH • Conclusion

  3. Hymns/Psalms • “Scholars commonly recognize that hymns formed a characteristic feature of early Christian worship, and have shown great interest in finding and studying hymns in the New Testament and other early Christian texts.”—Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003), 146-147.

  4. Colossians 3:16 • “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.”

  5. Matthew 26:30 • “When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”

  6. Acts 16:25 • “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”

  7. James 5:13 • “Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.”

  8. Pliny the Younger (111-112 C.E.) • “They affirmed, however, the whole of their guilt; or their error, was, that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ as to a god…”—Pliny, Epistles to Trajan 10.96.7

  9. Hymn Examples • “A number of New Testament passages are widely thought to incorporate hymnic material from the worship of first-century Christian circles (e.g., Phil. 2:6-11; Col. 1:15-20; John 1:1-18; Eph. 5:14; 1 Tim. 3:16), among which the Pauline passages are the earliest.”—Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ, 147.

  10. Bart Ehrman Explains • “Many scholars believe that several of the earliest hymns to Christ have been inserted by the authors of the New Testament in appropriate places of their writings (e.g., John 1:1-18)...

  11. Bart Ehrman Explains • …There are various ways to reconstruct the original form of the hymn that Paul appears to be citing in Phil 2:6-11.”—Bart Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. Fourth Edition (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 350.

  12. Philippians 2:6-11 “5Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God,   did not regard equality with God   as something to be exploited7but emptied himself,   taking the form of a slave,   being born in human likeness…

  13. Philippians 2:6-11 And being found in human form, 8   he humbled himself   and became obedient to the point of death—   even death on a cross…

  14. Philippians 2:6-11 • 9 Therefore God also highly exalted him   and gave him the name   that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus   every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,.. 

  15. Philippians 2:6-11 • and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,   to the glory of God the Father.” 

  16. Isaiah 45:22b-23 • “Turn to me and be saved,   all the ends of the earth!For I am God, and there is no other. 23 By myself I have sworn,   from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness…

  17. Isaiah 45:22b-23 • ‘To me every knee shall bow,every tongue shall swear.’” 

  18. Richard Bauckham Writes “The Philippians passage is, therefore, no unconsidered echo of an Old Testament text, but a claim that it is in the exaltation of Jesus, his identification as YHWHin YHWH’s universal sovereignty, that the unique deity of the God of Israel comes to be acknowledged as such by all creation.”—Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2009), 38.

  19. Philippians 2:6-11 • Paul is most likely quoting this hymn, which predates the writing of Philippians. • Paul wrote Philippians sometime in the 50s. • This means Christians were probably proclaiming Jesus was “in the form of God” and worshiping Jesus as YHWH no more than ~20 years after Jesus’s crucifixion.

  20. Isaiah 44:24 • “Thus says YHWH, your Redeemer,   who formed you in the womb:I am YHWH, who made all things,who alone stretched out the heavens,   who by myself spread out the earth.”

  21. John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”

  22. Worship God Only “For you shall worship no other god, because the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” (Exodus 34:14). People should only worship God. The early Christians worshipped Jesus. If Jewish Christians were worshipping Jesus, this indicates that they believed Jesus was God.

  23. Portions of Paul’s Letters Apply Hebrew Bible Passages Concerning YHWH to Jesus

  24. Larry Hurtado Writes • “So it is remarkable that, in other citations of Old Testament passages which originally had to do with God, Paul applies the passages to Jesus, making him the Kyrios:…

  25. Larry Hurtado Explains • ...Romans 10:13 (Joel 2:32), 1 Corinthians 1:31 (Jer. 9:23-24), 1 Corinthians 10:26 (Ps. 24:1), 2 Corinthians 10:17 (Jer. 9:23-24).”—Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ, 112.

  26. Hurtado Continues • “There are also a number of cases where Paul alludes to Old Testament passages that mention Yahweh as the Kyrios and Paul clearly makes Jesus the referent: 1 Corinthians 10:21 (Mal. 1:7, 12), 1 Corinthians 10:22 (Deut. 32:21),…

  27. Hurtado Continues • …2 Corinthians 3:16 (Exod. 34:34), 1 Thessalonians 3:13 (Zech. 14:5), 1 Thessalonians 4:6 (Ps. 94:2).”—Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ, 112.

  28. Joel 2:32 • “Then everyone who calls on the name of the LORD (YHWH) shall be saved.”

  29. Romans 10:13 • “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…For, ‘Everyone who calls on thename of the Lord shall be saved.’”

  30. Conclusion • These first century hymns indicate that Christians were already worshipping Jesus as YHWH approximately 20 years after Jesus’s death. • Paul’s letters and the Gospel of John all date to the first century.

  31. Conclusion • Therefore, it is evident that belief in Jesus’s divinity was present in the first century, even if the New Testament preserved no hymns at all. • Pliny the Younger, a Roman official, reports that Christians were singing hymns to Christ “as to a god” by the first half of the second century.

More Related